Okay hold on here! Just hold on a minute...
Let's put down the pitch forks and torches and talk this out.
This should NOT be a which hunt!
Now before we ALL start jumping in without having personal
experience with this vendor it really is not fair lump them into the category of "Bad Vendors".

First Yes you can check email and phone messages from all over the world BUT...
believe it or Not everyone has smart phones. I'm just saying.
Let it be clear I am not taking sides I just want this to be worked out between the 2 parties involved.
I might be a little "WTH" to if i didn't hear back from a vendor in a few of weeks of ordering.
Just to get an update on my order. That's it!
Now if the order was placed on July 30th then we should take a pause and consider that.
Their are many variables to that...What was ordered? How long does it take to make?
If i get an order for 2 pieces it can takes us 2 sometimes 3 weeks to get them based how busy we are.
To my demise I Obsesse on my business and answer all emails in 20 minutes sometimes. But that's just me.
I know this is about communication. I get that i do. Very important!
Again i am not taking sides i just don't want this to turn into a witch hunt.
FAIR?

Jim, I'm with you on this & I have also posted my frustrations regarding the lack in communication from vendors. Seems like common ground (or common excuse) is "we were on the road/out of the country/setting up a haunt in another state"- so what! If you are a ligit biz than act like one! No one & I mean no one in today's world is more than 5 minutes from a device that can reach across this globe. At the very least these vendors should notify their customers prior to departing (if they will be unreachable) or have an actual person or answering service handling incoming messages. I wonder if these vendors would not feel the same way if they called their bank day after day trying to make a withdraw only to receive an email saying "sorry we were away for a couple of weeks"! Yeah, that wouldn't be a problem right? Yeah...riiight! Get it together vendors...it is obvious this industry is seriously lacking in the communication department. There is such a simple solution...COMMUNICATE!!!

I've got to chime in here with my two cents. In case anyone hasn't noticed the Haunted House Industry is a niche market and in our case a very small business with very limited resources to do what we can to add to the industry. None of us have business degrees and we are artists just doing our best to get by and work out of passion to provide what we do. Most of us have day jobs and don't have the ability to hire anyone, let alone just one person to answer all the incoming communications. So what do we do? I guess in Mr Pickles esteemed opinion just close our doors because one person had a bad communication experience. Let's make a mountain out of a mole hill. So all our other customers who are patient and can read that some orders take 1-3 weeks to ship on our HOME page will lose a source of what I consider very good quality products.

Here are the facts - For the record it was a slip mask order, I got one email that said "do I have a ship date". It didn't mention the order number or what was on it, I assumed it was answered. Various people at Screamline check twitter accounts, fb accounts and emails when we can. Instead of having our neighbors get harassed by this customer (which seemed a little extreme for an order that wasn't even billed yet), another email would have been sufficient for me to wonder why there wasn't a response. I would have surely replied. The website should be considered the only venue for getting a response for orders and it received ONE email asking about status.

This ONE order slipped through the cracks when it comes to communicating. It happens to the biggest companies. I can show example after example of customers complimenting us on our rapid response, but one customer complains on a public forum and we need to GET IT TOGETHER. I wish we could all be perfect and I could have a business that actually made enough to have full time paid employees. But it is what it is - all I am asking is to cut us a little slack instead of jumping to conclusions and questioning our ability to have a legitimate business. I am sure all the frustrations of the industry weren't meant to be placed on our doorstep, but that is certainly where it ended up.

Crap like this makes you just want to say to hell with it, like many other vendors already have.

I agree with both sides. I understand that as a haunter you shell out a lot of money and expect to see results. I also understand as a vendor the demand is high and getting higher the closer we get to opening dates.

I would like to make a humble suggestion. I start planning and ordering for my haunt in February which allows the vendors to have adequate time AND sometimes I get price breaks becuase it's still so early in the year. I like to use the saying "lack of preperation on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine" and this is very true.

One time I ordered over $1000 of supplies from a company that never delivered and yet charged me for them. Long story short, I never received anything back money or merchandise. This is a mutual fear, one that I completely understand. But we still has to have some sort of patience with vendors or resort into doing it ourselves.

Before any more attacking is done on the forum please keep in mind you might be burning a bridge in a relatively small community. Ultimately we are all on the same team trying to produce an attraction. Try putting yourself in the other persons shoes before going off and have patience.

First - I want to say thanks to Screamline for making AWESOME products, and being a vendor in this industry that makes quality props.

Second- I can see how after a couple weeks goes by anyone would start to get "concerned with their order"... I'm not saying I agree with the methods taken to get results, but would be a liar if I haven't though about doing some of the same while dealing with a few "other" vendors with orders placed in March that were received in October....

My take on it all is it's TIME, you know the time where everyone is running crazy to get all the orders filled, all the props built, all the orders that you just realized you needed ordered , trying to find all the info. on the orders that have been placed....

EVERYONE calm down.... it's going to be OK, just be a little understanding, a little patient, & enjoy the fact that we all are going to get to do what we love REALLY SOON!

Steve,
First of all my opinion isn't "esteemed" & you don't have to call me Mr.! Lol Just trying to lighten the mood a little. If you re-read my post I didn't attack you personally or your company directly. You don't owe me anything (although I understand you do deliver nice products & hopefully next year we'll do some business) so it's not my place to have a beef directly with you. However, unfortunately there seems to be one very important common complaint when you look back to threads even years ago...communication! In my post I was stating a glaring problem this industry seems to have in this department. Without rehashing what actually happened as far as emails, texts, calls, voicemails, etc. between you two (and if I am not privy to all information I couldn't & wouldn't take sides) in your particular transaction. I want to apologize to you if you even remotely thought I was attacking you or your business directly...please accept that as sincere. I was simply stating "I'm with you" as agreeing with Jim on the seemingly huge lack of communication many (not all & not even you) seem to show year after year to the sole people who support their business. It just totally frustrates me to no end that this comes up constantly but seems to never get better.???

I do speak (not as "esteemed") lol of some background/experience on this subject though. As a builder for more than 22 years I was constantly being held to task if my homes weren't delivered on time. It did not matter if it was directly linked to me or not...it was my name on the sign & labor disputes, weather, suppliers, etc. didn't stop my customers from "flogging" me. But one thing I never waivered on was my ALWAYS open line of communication with my customers! Was it a pain in the ass? Hell yeah. But the one thing all my customers always commented on was the fact that they were never left guessing or wondering when I'd get back to them.

Steve, again, not saying you were not on top of things here...simply stating an age old problem that burns me up so I do jump in on some threads and show my frustration. It was NOT aimed directly @ you bud...I hope you accept that as well as my apology if you took it that way. I'd like to buy you a couple of cocktails at Transworld when I can hopefully meet you & your staff.

I just had a great conversation with Jason from Screamline and everything has been settled. We have a mutual understanding of each others situations that led to this and respect each others points. My order will ship tomorrow and I look forward to future business relations with them.
Thread closed ?? ;-)

Great talk Jim!!! thank you for understanding our busy schedule, but i cant lie!!! it pisses me off that Lenard Pickle acts like he doesn't know us ???? what the hell is that about we only vended at hauntcon and been friends with him and his wife for years .......??